'Five Nights at Freddy's' Breaks Box Office Records With Best Blumhouse Opening of the Year

Universal

****** Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 is now playing in cinemas and has game fans flocking to cinemas in huge numbers despite the movie being slammed by critics just ahead of its release. What is more, is that audiences are absolutely loving the film, turning it into one of the highest openings for a horror movie this year and great news for Blumhouse.

Universal

While last weekend was all about* Zootopia 2*’s mammoth opening of more than $500 million, this weekend has been more subdued, but has still produced a record of its own thanks to the release of the highly anticipated sequel to the 2023 original. That movie ended up debuting with $80 million and was the second best “day and date” movie release behind Marvel’s Black Widow.

Now Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 is set to be another big deal for Blumhouse, proving that no matter what critics say, there are some movies that will always be able to pull in a crowd. As it stands, the movie was originally looking at a $40 million opening, but, just like the projections for the first film, it grossed more than $30 on its first day, pushing estimates to $55 million. While this falls a long way short of its predecessor, it is the second-highest opening for a horror movie this year, behind The Conjuring: Last Rites, and the biggest domestic post-Thanksgiving opening ever.

More importantly, a $55 million box office would see the film out-gross the lifetime box office of all but two movies released by Blumhouse since the first *Five Nights at Freddy’s *was released over two years ago. However, the fact that the sequel has fallen short of matching the opening of its predecessor but comes with more than double the budget may mean that *Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 *is still not the massive success the production company really needs, especially with James Cameron’s Avatar: Fire and Ash coming to dominate cinemas soon.

Can ‘Five Nights at Freddy’s’ Ride a Wave of Strong Audience Reviews?

When critics scored Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 a terrible 13% on Rotten Tomatoes, it came as a surprise to no one. The first film was panned, and with the second one diving deeper into satisfying fans of the game, many critics just found very little merit in the sequel.

Audience reviews have been a very different beast. The film’s Popcornmeter score is sitting at 88%, which is slightly higher than the first movie’s 86%, and the general opinion is that if you have played any of the FNaF video games, then this movie will give you everything you could want and more.

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 stars Josh Hutcherson, Mckenna Grace, Elizabeth Lail, and Matthew Lillard among others, and the film certainly leaves the door open just enough for a third movie to head down the line in the future. Perhaps Five Nights at Freddy’s 3 can finally deliver a movie critics can finally find something positive in…but we won’t hold our breath.

Release Date December 5, 2025

Director Emma Tammi

Writers Scott Cawthon